Community Association

For more than 30 years, Elkridge Community Association has lobbied on behalf of more than 400 homeowners on such issues as a controversial solid-waste trash transfer station and a single ZIP code for the area.That could all change -- not the purpose, but the name.Members are considering changing the group's name because the area the association represents has grown to include parts of Dorsey, Ellicott City, Hanover and Jessup.Members weighed in with their votes for a new name during the group's meeting Thursday night, according to Daniel Vaccaro, an association board member who distributed a survey.

On March 19, the Greater Baltimore Highlands Community Association met for its monthly meeting. State Sen. Nancy Jacobs, a Republican who represents District 34 that includes Harford and Cecil counties, was the guest speaker. Jacobs, a West Virginia native who is the only woman running for the 2nd Congressional District seat now held by U.S. Rep.C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger, answered questions about taxes, gas prices and the economy. She urged everyone to vote in the April 3 primary election.

Wilde Lake Community Association is sponsoring a second session of Internet workshops at Bryant Woods Neighborhood Center, 10449 Green Mount Circle."Creating an Internet Homepage" will be offered from 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Saturday and March 2 and 9.The cost is $15 per class or $40 for the series.Registration is required.Information: 730-3987.

Here is a list of forums that will be hosting candidtates for the Board of Education: When: March 14, 6 p.m., Where: Starflight Enterprises, 6801 Douglas Legum Drive, Elkridge Sponsor: Thurgood Marshall Democratic Club of Howard County When: March 18, 1:45 p.m. Where: Howard High School, 8700 Old Annapolis Road, Ellicott City Sponsor: Chinese Language School of Columbia When: March 21, 7 p.m. Where: Patuxent Room,...

BILL WAFF, a member of the Howard County Board of Appeals, is retiring as president of the Savage Community Association. He has held that post, he says, more often than not for the past 10 years. But after his appointment in June to the Board of Appeals, "You try to avoid conflict of interest," he said. The Board of Appeals makes decisions regarding land use. The Waffs moved to Savage from Mississippi, where Bill was in the Coast Guard, in 1976. They had lived in Columbia and Bowie, and knew and liked the area.

This summer, St. John's Lane Community Association sponsored its first gardening contest, complete with judges, prizes, and various categories.Doris Guercio, Ruth Hutchinson and Ellen Oppenheimer toured the sprawling area in June, coming up with three winners and three honorable mentions.Winner of the best sunny garden was Beverly Lang of 3600 block Meadowvale Drive; best shady garden, Bob and Joan Coberly of 4200 block Club Court; and best all-around yard, Marie and Jennings Brinsfield of 3800 block Spring Meadow Drive.

For the past four weeks -- unlike the previous four years -- Muriel Carter has not made a daily trek to the Glen Burnie Improvement Association building to conduct business."

A Rodgers Forge couple came out on top yesterday in a legal battle hinging on what might seem a simple question: Where is the "front" of their house? The decision yesterday by the Baltimore County Board of Appeals marked the second time that Brigid and Dave Wilder have prevailed in a challenge to their plans to enlarge their kitchen and add a porch to their end-of-group rowhouse - a project that a community association has said would threaten the architectural and aesthetic integrity of the neighborhood.

A trip to Sherwood Gardens is a spring ritual worth repeating. I've been going there all my life, and it never gets old. If anything, on a recent warm evening, nearing nightfall, it seemed fresh, fertilized and healthy. The place was full of families who were there for the same reason I was. It was a chance to take in the glories of a Maryland spring. I am not sure I would want to be surrounded by all those pinks, purples and yellows year-round. But in April, after what we endured in February, give me all those tulip beds, flowering trees and shrubs.

Homeownership for the longtime residents of Edmondson Village literally came at a high price. In the 1950s and 1960s, the community was the victim of rampant blockbusting. Unscrupulous real estate agents scared white homeowners into selling their homes by telling them blacks were moving into the area. The same houses were sold to blacks at inflated prices. The increase was called the "black tax." But they were often the first homes that black residents had owned, so they cherished them.

Elkridge residents are turning to lawmakers from Howard County for help fighting the potential placement of a CSX rail transfer facility in their community, arguing that lower costs should not be the only factor considered. The site in Elkridge is the cheapest of four potential locations, and the only one estimated to stay within the original $150 million cost estimate — which CSX and the state had agreed to split equally. But Elkridge residents say the project would devastate the property values of the 353 homes that lie within a quarter-mile of the facility.

As a member of Encore Community Music Association since its beginnings in 1995, Andrew Spang has played various instruments - and has even conducted the community band. This year, he's playing the French horn for the first time, and has the pleasure of sitting next to his son. "This is our first year doing it (together)," said Spang, of his 11-year-old, French horn playing son, Benjamin. "My daughter is in the string orchestra. This is her first year, too. It's really neat.

lperl@patuxent.com Normally, news of a community meeting in Charles Village is hardly unusual. The neighborhood is well-represented by groups ranging from the Charles Village Civic Association, which will host a forum for political candidates Aug. 30, to the Charles Village Community Benefits District, a special taxing district, which will discuss its supplemental services at a public meeting Sept. 10. But one upcoming community meeting, billed as a chance for residents to discuss everything from crime to a planned Wal-Mart, is taking community leaders by surprise, not for its topics, but for its unlikely sponsor, the owner of a local yoga studio called The Living Well.

Dixon Stetler, who moved to Baltimore from North Carolina last month, sat on the steps of her Mount Vernon apartment Wednesday, working on an art project. Learning that a woman had been raped in her St. Paul Street apartment the afternoon before, just a few blocks from Stetler's place on North Calvert Street, she expressed a sentiment that echoed through this midtown neighborhood. "I'm terrified," said Stetler, who plans to attend graduate school at Maryland Institute College of Art . "I've seen so many crazy things in the past month.

The Hereford Community Association's members voted unanimously to expand the group's boundaries at its April 12 meeting. The original boundaries were drawn in 1989 when the association formed and covered a half-mile radius from the intersection of Mount Carmel and York roads. Those boundaries were enlarged in 1998. Paul Cummins, association president, said many people who stopped by the HCA booth at theHereford Zone Business Association Expo in February expressed interest in joining, but live outside its boundaries.

A trip to Sherwood Gardens is a spring ritual worth repeating. I've been going there all my life, and it never gets old. If anything, on a recent warm evening, nearing nightfall, it seemed fresh, fertilized and healthy. The place was full of families who were there for the same reason I was. It was a chance to take in the glories of a Maryland spring. I am not sure I would want to be surrounded by all those pinks, purples and yellows year-round. But in April, after what we endured in February, give me all those tulip beds, flowering trees and shrubs.

Since 1971, John Baumgarten has spent $30,000 to erect a shed, install a water line, build brick steps and put in electricity and a patio on the sloping waterfront tract behind his Cape St. Claire home.Friday, an Anne Arundel Circuit Court judge ruled that the property belongs to the community, not to Mr. Baumgarten."I think it's wrong, and I disagree. But it's something I'll just have to live with," said Mr. Baumgarten, a construction contractor.Mr. Baumgarten was one of a group of St. Claire homeowners who sued the Cape St. Claire Community Association in 1992, asking a judge to declare them owners of the waterfront tracts behind the homes they bought in the 1970s and 1980s.

The shallow waters of Locust Cove have doomed Downs Park as a site for North County's first public boat ramp, County Councilman Carl G. "Dutch" Holland said yesterday afternoon.The decision comes about two weeks after members of the Pinehurst on the Bay/Bodkin Community Association started organizing opposition to a ramp. Members say they were promised 16 years ago that no boating or swimming would be allowed at the park.Mr. Holland, a Pasadena Republican, said community objections played no role in the decision.

A judge has ordered the Calvert Marine Museum to pay a homeowners association $10,001 for improperly removing a 10 million-year-old fossil whale skeleton from communally owned cliffs. After more than eight hours of testimony over two days, Calvert Circuit Judge Warren Krug ordered the museum in Solomons to pay the community $1 for trespassing, and $10,000 for the value of the fossil. But while it was a win for the Chesapeake Ranch Estates property owners' association, its president, John Eney, called the award "an insult," and the victory "hollow."

The huge Under Armour logo recently added to the hillside of Federal Hill Park to welcome volleyball players has angered some residents, who say the advertisement detracts from the aesthetics of the historic neighborhood. "It's hugely disrespectful," said Paul W. Robinson, president of the Federal Hill Neighborhood Association. Since the logo was added Thursday night, Robinson said, he has received about 40 phones call and at least as many e-mails from residents upset by the advertisement.